Version 19.0 - April 5, 2017 Version 19.1 - September 29, 2017

Version 20.0 - March 16, 2018

Version 20.1 - June 15, 2018

Oxygen XML Author 18.0

Oxygen
XML Author version 18.0 includes new features and improvements to set the standards
for structured authoring even higher than our users are already accustomed
to.

Now you can collaborate more easily and effectively with others through comment
threads by providing a new reply to comment action and allowing to
you mark comments as being resolved.

A brand new visual Image Map Editor allows you to easily add
links on specific areas within an image, while automatically generating the
corresponding markup.

Numerous of other Author improvements have been made. Working
with tables has become more intuitive, a new validation engine reports problems in
table structures, and more Smart Paste strategies have been
implemented to allow Oxygen to preserve the validity of the document you are
editing.

The new XML-aware three-way file comparison feature helps you
solve conflicts and merge changes between multiple modifications of the same file.
It is especially helpful for teams that have multiple authors working concurrently
on the same documents.

DITA content can be published using a new publishing system called WebHelp
Responsive. Nearly all aspects of its layout can be customized and it
is adaptable to any device and screen size to provide an optimal viewing and
interaction experience. It also includes a variant that allows online users to
provide feedback in your documentation.

The most commonly used documentation frameworks, DITA and DocBook have been
updated. Oxygen now officially supports DITA 1.3 and the DITA Open Toolkit
recent version 2.2.3 is offered in addition to the stable 1.8.5 version. The DocBook
stylesheets were updated to version 1.79.1 and DocBook schemas to version
5.1.

As usual, Oxygen also added many new API and component updates for this
release.

Visual XML Editing

Reply to Comments and Mark as Done

You can collaborate with other members of your team more easily, taking
advantage of the improved annotation support. You can now reply to comments
added by others and you can also start new comment threads. Everyone that has
access to the project can see the comment threads and join the discussion at any
time. You can also resize the callout bubbles with simple drag operations to
better visualize the entire comment thread. The Mark as done
option allows you to mark a discussion thread as being completed. This is useful
for marking comments that have been addressed, leaving only those that still
need some attention.

Create and Edit Image Maps

An Image Map Editor has been implemented in
Author mode and can be used with images in DITA, DocBook,
XHTML, and TEI documents. It allows you to add links from specific areas of an
image to corresponding topics or other resources.

Report Table Layout Problems

Oxygen now reports various CALS and
HTML table layout problems using a special table validation
engine. The feature is enabled by default for DITA and DocBook
documents.

When you add or edit a comment in Author mode, you can
now use line breaks and Oxygen will take the line breaks into account when
presenting the callouts in the editor or the Review
view.

Line Wrapping Improved for Asian Languages

Improvements have been done to the line breaking and word wrapping in
Asian languages when editing in Author mode. For example, line
breaks are now considered before or after a Chinese Enumeration
Comma.

Various Performance Improvements

Various speed improvements have been made for opening files in
Author mode both in the Oxygen standalone and the
Eclipse plugin. Speed was also improved when switching between DITA maps in the
DITA Maps Manager view.

Smart Paste Improvements

Strategies that guide you to insert content in the proper places have
been greatly improved and the best strategy is automatically applied depending
on each case. This further helps you to keep the document valid even when you
are trying to insert fragments that otherwise would invalidate the document. As
an example, no matter where you are editing in a DITA document, if you decide to
add a shortdesc element, Oxygen will insert it in its correct
position and will create all its required element structure.

Customize Rendering of Elements in Author Mode

You can use a configuration file to customize how element names, their
icons, and their annotations are rendered in various places in
Author mode. For example, you can change the name that is
displayed for an element in the Content Completion Assistant,
the breadcrumb navigation bar, the Full Tags display mode, and
the Outline, Elements, and
Attributes views. This is used for example by the
Lightweight DITA framework to provide user friendly names for elements,
Short Description instead of shortdesc,
Definition List instead of dl and so on.

HiDPI Improvements on Windows and Linux

Various improvements and fixes have been made to make the application
compatible with HiDPI monitors on Windows and Linux.

DITA

DITA 1.3 Official Support

DITA 1.3 specification is officially supported and enabled by default.
Previous DITA versions are also supported.

Content Completion Assistance Improvements

When inserting or editing the conkeyref attribute in
DITA, the content completion assistance will propose a list of keys that are
defined in the DITA map and the trailing slash will be automatically
inserted.

DITA Open Toolkit 2.2.3

Updated the bundled DITA Open Toolkit to version 2.2.3 in addition to
providing also the stable DITA-OT 1.8.5.

DITA-OT Markdown Plugin Integration

The DITA-OT Markdown plugin has been added to the DITA
Open Toolkit 2.x distribution that come bundled with Oxygen. It allows you
to publish DITA content to Markdown, or to publish DITA Maps
that refer to Markdown resources.

DITA Map to WebHelp Responsive Transformation Scenario

A new online help publishing system called WebHelp Responsive is now
available. The system has the ability to adapt to any device and screen size to
provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience. It is based upon the
Bootstrap responsive front-end framework. Oxygen includes a variety of
predefined templates and skins for this new WebHelp system and you can customize
the output according to your needs. It also includes a feedback mechanism that
allows online users to post comments on each topic from the manual.

Special Support for Editing Lightweight DITA

A new framework for Lightweight DITA provides specialized support for
lightweight DITA topics and maps, featuring guided authoring concepts like
inline hints and actions as well as form controls for editing different
properties directly within the editing area.

DITA Map to PDF WYSIWYG Transformation Improvements

Various fixes and improvements were also added to the DITA Map to PDF
WYSIWYG transformation. The output now shows chapter numbers, supports tables
with cells that span multiple rows or columns, and if you enable the
show.changes.and.comments parameter, replies to comments
will also now be presented in the output, along with comments and tracked
changes.

DocBook

Improved Annotations of DocBook Elements

The annotations that appear when you hover over elements in DocBook
documents have been improved to include the name of the element, a brief
description, and a link to the specification.

DocBook XSL Version 1.79.1

Updated DocBook XSL to the latest version 1.79.1.

DocBook 5.1 Schemas

The DocBook schemas were updated to the latest version
5.1.

XML Refactoring

Custom XML Refactoring Operations

You can create your own custom XML refactoring operations and share
them with other team members. These custom operations are now supported in all
editions of Oxygen.

CSS

Improvements to Content Completion in CSS

When entering CSS selectors in the CSS editor, the
Content Completion Assistant will now offer a list of pseudo-elements and
pseudo-classes that are available for the particular CSS profile. Also, after
@media or @import rules, it will now offer
a list of supported media types.

Shortcut to Open Resources in CSS Files

When editing CSS or LESS stylesheets, you can now quickly open imported
stylesheets or other resources (such as images) in the default system
application for the particular type of resource, using a new shortcut
(Ctrl+Single-Click or Command+Single-Click
on OS X).

Support for the rem Length Unit

Support was added for the rem font size unit. It can
be used as a unit of measurement for the <length> value of a
'font-size' property and it refers to the initial value of
the 'font-size' property of the root element.

Content Completion

Customization of Content Completion Proposals

The elements and attributes that are proposed in the Content Completion
Assistant can be customized for each framework by using a configuration file.
You can configure the values that are proposed, customize the elements or
attributes that are proposed, or specify a global list of elements or attributes
that will be available for a particular framework.

Quick Search in the Content Completion Proposals List

When entering a search string in the Content Completion
Assistant, it presents proposals that start with the
prefix entered as the search string, followed by items that contain
the search string. For example, in an XML document, if you enter
'list', the Content Completion Assistant
will propose 'list' and 'orderedlist'. Note
that for the Oxygen Eclipse plugin, this feature is only available in
Author mode.

Schemas

Multi-Lingual Support in Schematron Validation Messages

You can now specify a language to be used for Schematron validation
messages with an option in the Schematron preferences page and
they can be presented in multiple languages by defining the language for each
message using Schematron diagnostics.

File Comparison Tool

Three-Way File Comparison Support

A three-way file comparison feature was added to the file
comparison tool to help you solve conflicts and merge changes
between multiple modifications. It is especially helpful for teams who have
multiple authors editing and committing the same documents. It provides a
comparison between a local change, a remote change, and the base (ancestor)
revision.

Multiple Algorithms for Three-Way Comparisons

You can use Lines, XML Fast, and
XML Accurate algorithms for the three-way comparison
feature in the file comparison tool and in the
Compare view in Syncro SVN Client.

Second-Level Comparison

The File Comparison tool now automatically performs a
second level comparison for the Lines, XML
Fast, and XML Accurate algorithms. After the first
comparison is finished, the second level comparisons are processed on text nodes
using a word level comparison, meaning that it looks for identical words. This
second level comparison makes it easier to spot precise differences and you can
merge or reject the precise modifications.

Ignore Nodes by XPath Option

A new option was added on the toolbar of the File
Comparison tool and in the Compare view in the
Syncro SVN Client. You can enter an XPath 2.0 expression to ignore certain nodes
when comparing using the XML Fast or XML
Accurate algorithms.

The EditPropertiesHandler interface allows you to present a specialized
dialog box when the action of double-clicking an element tag is intercepted. For
example, you could use it to present a dialog box that allows the user to
editing the properties of an image.

The GlobalOptionsStorage API allows you to get or set the values of
certain global options in Oxygen.

Add Custom Actions to the Menu Shortcut Keys Preferences Page

The ActionsProvider.registerAction API allows you to register a new
action in the application and the action will be added to the list in the
Menu Shortcut Keys options page. Thus, you can assign a
shortcut key to the new action either via the API or from the Menu
Shortcut Keys Preferences page.

The EclipseWorkspaceAccessPluginExtension plugin extension point can be
used to notify another plugin when the Oxygen Eclipse plugin is started or
before it is closed. The other plugin can use the API, for example, to add or
remove various listeners.

The AuthorActionEventHandler API allows you to intercept special action
events (TAB, SHIFT-TAB or ENTER) in the Author mode and then
you can handle them in a special manner.

Image Decorator in Author Mode

The new AuthorImageDecorator API allows you to decorate images that are
displayed in the Author mode. For example, you could use it to
add a message over an image informing the user that they can double-click the
image to edit it.

The AuthorSchemaAwareEditingHandlerAdapter.getAncestorDetectionOptions
method was added. When pasting content in Author mode, if the
result causes the document to become invalid, the Smart Paste
feature will propose solutions to make it valid. As a possible solution,
Oxygen might surround the pasted content in a sequence of ancestor elements.
This new API method allows you to choose which parent elements might be a
possible solution.

Smart Paste Feature will Replace Empty Node

The AuthorSchemaAwareEditingHandlerAdapter.canBeReplaced
method was added to improve solutions for the Smart Paste feature. For example,
when pasting an element inside an empty element with the same name, Oxygen
might replace the empty node with the new one. The callback could also reject
this behavior if, for instance, the replacement node contains
attributes.

Other

Upgraded Support for EAD 3.0

Support for creating, editing, and validating Encoded Archival
Description (EAD) documents has been updated to include version
3.0.

Special Improvements for Comparing JSON Files

When using the Compare Files tool on two JSON files,
the Format and Indent action will automatically sort the keys
in both files to make it easier to compare the files.

Wildcards Allowed in Resource Names

When configuring a list of libraries in the document type associations
(frameworks) or in the list of libraries associated to an ANT or DITA OT
transformation scenario, the library file names can be specified using wildcards
(for example, ${framework}/lib/*.jar).

Rectangular Selection

A new rectangular selection feature allows you to edit, copy, cut,
paste, or delete content in Text mode. This is useful for
managing content inside a rectangular area that spans across consecutive
lines.

Print Line Numbers

If line numbers are displayed in the Text mode editor,
you now have the option to include them in the printed output.

Print Selected Text

You now have the ability to print a selection of text rather than the
entire document. When you invoke the print action with a block of content
selected, a dialog box will be presented that offers you the choice to print the
selection or the entire document.

Print Folded Document

You can now print XML documents that are opened in
Text mode in their folded state. This
applies to printing an entire document and not selections within a
document.

Export Database Resources

A new contextual menu action (Export) in the
Data Source Explorer view allows you to export the folder
on the remote connection to a local folder. This applies to WebDAV, SharePoint,
Documentum, Berkeley, MarkLogic, and eXist connections.

Option to Clear History in Various Drop-Down Menus

Various drop-down menus now have a Clear History
option at the bottom of the list. As the name implies, it allows you to clear
the history of your past selections in the particular drop-down
menu.

Encode/Decode Base 64, Base 32, and Hex Encoding Schemes

Some actions were added to the contextual menu in Text
mode that allow you to decode or encode content. The actions are available for
Base 64, Base 32, and Hex
encoding/decoding schemes. This is especially helpful for testing SOAP requests
when responses are encoded in a particular scheme.

Support for Installing Saxon 9.7 as an Add-on

Even though Saxon 9.7 does not come bundled with Oxygen, you can
install it as an add-on. This external transformer can be used for XSLT and
XQuery transformation and validation scenarios.